BIDEN IS CORRECT AND USA NEEDS SYRIA TO FIGHT ISIS(L) AS TURKEY AND SAUDI + BIG OIL MONARCHS ARE AGAINST USA AND ARE FOR ISIS(L) = FALL OF KOBANI = FAILURE OF USA BOMBING
Patrick Cockburn, Irish journalist and Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, now The Independent. Author of four books – latest book is The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising. Interview by ANTON WORONCZUK, PRODUCER on to The Real News Network.
WORONCZUK: VP Biden’s factual comments made at Harvard University, quote, “our allies in the region were the larger problem…various states involved in the war campaign against the Islamic State, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, had been responsible for funding extremist jihadi groups, among them the al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda, and were also fueling a Sunni-Shia proxy war.”
Kobani, Kurdish Town
WORONCZUK: Now, Kurdish fighters may have been defeated by ISIS(L) in Kobani in the three-week-long offensive. Ankara, Turkey refused to allow fighters from the Kurdish Workers’ Party, also known as the PKK, to cross the borders to fight against ISIS(L), nor has it provided military support in Kobani’s defense.
Ironically, Turkish officials are set to meet up with USA coalition against ISIS(L).
Why do you think VP Biden was forced to a factual statement?
PATRICK COCKBURN, JOURNALIST, THE INDEPENDENT: I found Biden’s honesty refreshing and true. It is true that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates–he didn’t mention Qatar, but he could have–were the countries that fostered the growth of ISIS(L) and of AQ-Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria and it’s true that they also encouraged a Sunni-Shia civil war. And it’s also true, as Biden said, that the moderates don’t really exist — moderates are not there except in MYTH cultivated by USA to fight both ISIS and the Assad government. So everything said was wholly true. I think it’s rather depressing he retreated partially from what he said.
COCKBURN: The consequences of pretending the coalition against ISIS is NOT made up those who created ISIS, is backfiring even now. We see that with the impending fall of Kobani to ISIS(L), this Kurdish town on the Syrian border. But ISIS has also won big victories in western Iraq by taking most of the enormous Anbar province – 25% of Iraq and is approaching Baghdad. This means that USA airstrikes and bombings is failing.
WORONCZUK: Isn’t the reason Kobani fell is because Turkey didn’t offer any military support for the Kurds in their fight against ISIS(L).
COCKBURN: True, and that is sort of what Biden was saying, this alliance of countries who previously supported ISIS(L) and groups like it and grew them. ISIS is not being degraded, certainly not being destroyed or even being contained. It’s expanding in both the east and the west. Once they’ve taken Kobani, they’ve cleared the whole way between Mosul, second-biggest city in Iraq, which they took on 10 June, and Aleppo, which–they’re just on the outskirts of Aleppo, which is the biggest city in Syria. So ISIS(L), the caliphate everybody mocked, is growing in size and strength. It’s not been diminished.
WORONCZUK: It was recently reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Abadi sent an envoy to Assad to assure him that he wouldn’t be a targeted during this war campaign. Do you think this can be taken seriously?
COCKBURN: What striking is just how messy and contradictory everybody’s policy is toward Syria and Assad. It’s perfectly obvious that if you effectively attack ISIS(L) yoou help Assad and the Syrian government. Kobani is just falling as we speak, and USA’s infrequent airstrikes weren’t able to prevent that. One reason why ISIS decided to take Kobani was to win an extra victory, to show that the airstrikes had not weakened them and they could still win on the battlefield. This is really quite a defeat for USA and quite a victory for ISIS(L).
WORONCZUK: Seems to be same case in the Anbar province in Iraq — totally controlled by the ISIS(L).
COCKBURN: There are a few islands of Iraqi Army or tribal control, but over the last month or so, ignored by the MSM, ISIS(L) has taken over most of Anbar including Hīt and most of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. They’re moving towards West Baghdad. In the past we’ve said they cannot take Baghdad because its mostly Shia, a city of 7 million people and the Iraqi Army has tens of thousands of men there plus militias. But the Iraqi Army is just as much of a wreck as it was when it lost northern Iraq in June. So things are not getting better.
WORONCZUK: Do you think it’s worth having a debate about military strategy?
COCKBURN: The Pentagon certainly has thought about this and it is obvious that Syria most be an alley on the ground, not pretend allies. Syria has shown the most success fighting ISIS(L) — the Syrian army, the Syrian Kurds, and Hezbollah — USA doesn’t have to sign treaties with these people, but they need a degree of cooperation that they can effectively act against ISIS(L) to coordinate and communicate, between ground and USA Air Force. The weakness of the USA air strategy has been exposed, that this whole policy is not working.
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